The Choice
by Elle Nielsen
Summary: AU When given the job opportunity of a lifetime, Kagome has to make the choice, her career or her love life. When faced with impossible choices, the right one isn't always the most obvious. One-Shot


The Choice

Portland had never been one of my favorite cities. Don't get me wrong I didn't hate the place, I just didn't like driving in it. But Inuyasha loved it, so I stayed. He knew I didn't love living there, or driving there, so he did most of the driving. It may not seem like a fair tradeoff, but in our own quirky way it worked. We had a nice life, a modest two bedroom, two bathroom condo style apartment overlooking Lake Oswego. Inuyasha had bought the place long before we started dating, hoping to resell the place for a profit. The market hadn't been in his favor so he held onto it hoping to sell it at some point. He never got the chance, I can't say he was disappointed though, he got a pretty nice roommate out of the deal. Our friends all thought we were going to get married soon, my best friend had picked up the annoying habit of asking if Inuyasha had proposed to me yet. She would ask me this every time I saw her, which was everyday as we both worked for the same company. All our friends thought the same thing, and I guess if things hadn't worked out the way they did, we would be married, that just wasn't in the cards for us. I wish it had been. So Inuyasha and I lived together in a cute little condo, in a nice neighborhood. He had a great job working as a columnist for The Portland Tribune, I worked for a company that did marine research. Mostly what I did was examine samples that had been sent in from all over the world. It wasn't my dream job, but it paid well and I got to use my degree. "Better then working at Sea World" my mother would tell me. On my bad days I would fantasize about quitting and running off to be a dolphin trainer. Inuyasha was in on the joke as well, he said he would follow me and would be the writer for our shows. I wish it had been true. I guess I should tell you how Inuyasha and I met it was a fluke really. I had just graduated from OIMB with a B.A. in marine biology. My best friends and I were out on the town celebrating our recent graduate status. Inuyasha was out with a few of the guys who worked at the paper having a beer and relaxing before he went home. He didn't even try to pick up on me, my friend had thought he was hot and tried to pick him up and ended up barfing all over his pants. Me, being the odd person I was, apologized for my friend and proceeded to give him all my information so I could buy him a new pair of pants. He had called me the next day and humored me. So our first date was pants shopping. We went and bought him pants, and then he convinced me with that amazing smile of his to go to dinner with him. Five years, a dog, and a condo later here we were lying together on a blanket on some secluded rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. Neither of us had been big beach people, mostly because we didn't like to deal with the people, so when we found beaches that were rocks or just a cliff we would jump on it. But back to this certain cliff. I had been called into my bosses office a few days back and been handed the best opportunity of my life, the only problem, it was in New Zealand. I had been given the chance to work in the field collecting the information that I had previously only been looking at through a microscope. I had told Inuyasha right away but I'd never expected this reaction. He had tried to sound happy but I saw in his eyes he wasn't. I didn't make the connection right away but when I did the sorrow set in. He couldn't follow me, or wouldn't I was never really sure which, but either way if I took the job I would be moving alone. Which is why we were at our favorite spot together, Inuyasha on his back with me pressed securely against his side my head in the crook of his shoulder. I had to give the higher ups my decision the next day and this was supposed to help me make my choice, a choice that I resented.

"Holiday musical chairs," I blurted out suddenly sitting up. Inuyasha looked at me totally confused and I went on to explain.

"We fly back and forth on holidays and whatever breaks we get from work," I said letting my happiness bubble over. Inuyasha gave me a sad smile before pulling me back down to his side.

"Maybe." Was all he said. I knew in my mind it probably wouldn't work, one of the first things we had discussed when we started dating was whether the other person planned on leaving because we didn't do long distance relationships. Inuyasha started to rub circles on my back and I tried to swallow a sob. Inuyasha heard me and he rolled onto his side crushing me to his chest. On arm wrapped around my body the other cradling my head against his chest. Both of my hands clutched at his shirt afraid if I let go he would disappear. I'd never been an emotional person, sure I had cried when my Grandfather died, and when we had to put our first dog down, but I'd never cried over movies or books. Hell, I had barely cried whenever I'd gotten dumped, I cried once then moved on. Inuyasha had said that was one of the things he'd loved about me, the fact that even if he had royally screwed up I was more likely to yell at him then cry about it. Inuyasha claimed he didn't know what to do when a woman cried, but at that moment he seemed to know exactly what to do. He might have been holding me a bit too tight, but I didn't care. I was only mildly surprised when I heard him take a shaky breath. I looked up and saw that a few tears had escaped his beautiful amber eyes. Our eyes met for a brief instant before his lips were on me in a desperate kiss. He was trying to pour ever unasked question into that kiss and I was doing the same. The kiss ended leaving us both breathless, Inuyasha no longer crying, I starting to get control of my sobs. He tried to pull my body closer to his and I felt him bury his head in the side of my neck his hot breath tickling my skin.

"Stay." It was so quiet I almost didn't hear it.

'What?"

"Please, stay with me," he pleaded. There was so much pain in his voice I almost broke down again, but that request was what made up my mind.

"I have to take the offer," I said softly choking on the last word feeling the sobs coming again.

"I know." The tears came again, Inuyasha held me to him. We laid there for hours, most of the time I cried, Inuyasha cried as well. We both drifted off into an uncomfortable sleep wrapped around each other. It was dark by the time we woke up and the long ride back home was silent. I told the head honcho guys my decision, I would be flying out in five days. I had five days to pack my entire life in a suitcase and fly off to some other country. Inuyasha and I didn't speak much until the day before I left. He took me out to a nice dinner and we walked along the river that night. When we came home we made love for what I assumed would be our last time. It was slow and sweet and I cried afterwards. The next morning I flew out of the country. All of our friends were in shock that I would leave, but they were all convinced that Inuyasha and I would be able to handle a long distance relationship, besides the job was only for two years, how hard could it be? Extremely hard it seemed, oh it went alright for the first few months. I flew home twice and he flew down to visit me once during the first three months. We discovered that sex in a long distance relationship is amazing because you don't get it that often. The fourth month we didn't get to see each other, Inuyasha was too busy with work to fly down to see me and I wasn't given the time off. Things didn't start to go downhill until about the seventh month I was gone. Inuyasha started to pull away from me, I found out later on that one of the men I was working who hadn't gotten that I wasn't interested had planted a seed of doubt in his mind. Inuyasha didn't talk to me for two weeks, and I decided to fly home. I had expected him to be happy to see me, he tried to fake the happiness but his eyes always gave him away. Three days into my trip home I found out why. He had gotten drunk and taken some random girl home. He'd slept with someone else. That was the only thing that registered in my mind. He apologized and knew that nothing he did would ever make up for it, he begged me not to go, but I didn't have a choice. I spent the rest of my trip at a friends place. I didn't visit the states the rest of the time I worked in New Zealand. Inuyasha had tried to get back together for about two months after the cheating incident, he even went so far as to fly down and show up at my doorstep with a ring. I guess he had been planning on proposing when I got the job offer. In his mind I guess proposing now would make up for what he did, but I didn't think that way. I never gave him a second chance, I just didn't know how to forgive him. He gave up though, and by the time I was leaving to go back home he and I hadn't spoken for six months. I planned on living with a friend until I could find a place of my own. I figured with the real estate market the way it was I wouldn't be bumming for too long. I was right, I found a beautiful two bedroom, two bathroom, with a sunroom, house in an adorable neighborhood, in Portland. I don't know why I stuck around, I had made it clear that if ever given the chance to get out I would, but here I was buying a house in Portland. I guess it was fate, or dumb luck that I ran into Inuyasha again. I think my subconscious tricked me into staying in Portland so that I would run into him, and I literally ran into him. I was bike riding in the park that was close to my new house and wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. I didn't realize it was him until he was pulling me off the ground an then into a hug.

"Inuyasha?" I asked once he let me go. The smile on his face made my heart stop, his smiles always had that affect on me.

"Hey Kagome," he said. I quickly noticed the cut on his head and dragged him back to my new home for first aid.

"Did you just move in?" He called from the kitchen. I hadn't had a chance to totally unpack so boxes were still all over the place.

"Yeah, about a week ago, who would think I would end up in Portland," I said coming back into the kitchen with some alcohol, cotton balls, and band-aids.

"Yeah, I figured you would be getting a place in California or Massachusetts," he said with a grin. I smiled back and shrugged before going to work on his many cuts. When I had him all patched up, he promptly sat me on the counter and went to work on my many cuts and bruises.

"So what are you doing in this neighborhood?" I asked watching him clean a particular nasty scrape on my left knee.

"I live here now, well not here, here, on the other side of the park. I guess I just couldn't handle the memories the old place had, so I sold it. Bankotsu and I are renting this big house on the other side of the park and living up the single life." He said with a small almost sad smile. The news that he was single shouldn't have made me as happy as it did, I silently reminded myself that this was the man who had cheated on me. _But he was drunk_. Shut up.

"All done." He threw the used cotton balls in the trash and patted me on the knee.

"Thanks," I said trying to keep the squeak out of my voice. Inuyasha looked me in the eyes then, there was so much emotion in them it took my breath away. He seemed to be battling with himself over something before he blurted out.

"Go to dinner with me?" I was surprised he had the nerve to ask me, what surprised me ever more was that I wanted to say yes. I silently raged with myself over the decision and I guess my silence was answer enough for him.

"Right, I'm sorry stupid question, I guess I'll be seeing you around," he said before walking out of the kitchen. I'm not sure what made me do it, or what got me to move, but one second I was sitting in my kitchen having a silent battle with myself. The next I was running out my front door shouting for Inuyasha to wait. What I did next surprised both of us, I'll still never be able to tell you why I did what I did, but I don't really care. As soon as Inuyasha turned around I launched myself at him pressing my lips to his in a fierce kiss. It took a moment for him to register what was happening but soon his arms were around my waist lifting me off the ground kissing me back with as much passion as I was. We pulled apart but he didn't set me back on the ground, he searched my eyes for a moment before cracking one of his brilliant smiles.

"I take it that's a yes?" He said happily. I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of me.

"Yes, I would love to go to dinner with you." Maybe happily ever after was in the cards for us.

**AN: Okay so I woke up at three AM with these plot bunnies running around in my head that wouldn't let me sleep. So I wrote this, totally random but I like it, let me know what you think!**


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